Family is the core value in every aspect of wholesale Italian business GauchoGourmet, which was brought to life by Manuel Ciorciari in 1992. After Manuel passed away in 2007, his family took over the business, hoping to carry on his traditions and passion. The business is owned and operated by Raul, Luciano, Juan Manuel, Cookie and Sylvia Ciorciari, who offer international and local restaurants and bars authentic Italian products.

“My father used to always say, ‘If you treat your customers like you treat your family, you'll always be successful,' and we do this with our customers all the time,” says Luciano. “We are always very honest with our customers and offer them products at a fair price.”

GauchoGormet opens its doors to the public 3 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. The free event includes a guest chef, tastings and good company.

Luciano and Juan sat down to talk about their business and the important role family plays.

Tell me about your personal background. ﻿﻿

J: Our grandparents are from Italy and then we grew up in Argentina. My father had traveled all over the world. He had worked in the U.S. and we decided to move back to the U.S. in 1992.

L: When we moved back, he came with the intentions of wanting to start a business here. So when we got here, we saw the opportunity to start sourcing a lot of products from Argentina and then the rest of the world that we've traveled around, from Italy to France to Spain to Germany.

Is an Italian wholesale business popular in San Antonio?

J: We've had a really good response from people. They love it.

L: What they like and what we've been able to do is the authenticity of the products. You have some availability but it's hard to find really good authentic products, that when you go travel to Italy or when you eat here, there's no difference because this is what the products are like.

J: We don't want to just focus on Italy, but also all over Spain and France. We tend to be very inclusive. We think of something and say let's try it out and people are very interested in trying and exploring new tastes.

Where do you get the products?

L: All the products that we have are imported. We try to work with really small producers that have control over the end product. Ninety-five percent of the products you see here will be imported and then we also work with some really good domestic boutique producers of different products. These people are first- or second-generation from Europe who have been making and producing these items for half a century.

What are some popular restaurants you supply?

J: We supply some of the most popular restaurants, hotels and catering companies in town, and we're working with some of the most talented chefs.

How did your dad get this idea to have a wholesale business for Italian food?

L: Our culture revolved a lot around passion for food and people. Food brings people to the table and it brings people (to) share experiences and talk to you. If you think about it, what happens when you really enjoy a meal? You stay there a long time. That was his idea the whole time. He wanted to encourage people to really enjoy a meal and really bring people together and enjoy the company. It's really what inspired him to source with great quality product. He wanted to be able to encourage people to come together as a community.

Tell me about opening up to the public.

L: We make everything available for purchase. We feature fresh-baked bread and sliced meat, and soon we're going to have a deli market that offers a much more extended line of all our cheeses and all of our meats in much more individual packaging than we have. We'll have an entire deli dedicated to the cheeses and the meats and the nuts and dry fruits and olives. We do this on Saturdays because a lot of times we host guest chefs and you get the opportunity to come meet the chef one on one. Ask them questions and see why they use what they use.

How do you incorporate your family values into your business?

J: We give them straight answers and give people the best advice.

L: My father always said “If you treat your customers like you treat your family, then you'll always be successful.” We always put out the best and at a fair price.